Wednesday, 8 January 2014

Before the London Schools Symphony Orchestra played a note
in their first concert of the new season at The Barbican Centre I had assumed
that there might be some ragged or thin playing from the strings, and
enthusiastic but uncontrolled playing from the brass. How wrong I was! In a programme
of two contrasting halves, the LSSO proved themselves to be a crack team in spite
of the fact that for many players this was their first concert with the
orchestra. The playing was certainly
enthusiastic under the dynamic young Venezuelan conductor Carlos Izcaray, but
also tightly controlled and well balanced. Izcaray opened the concert with an impromptu
description of the music, showing himself to be an able communicator as well as
musician. During rehearsals he had discovered that 99 per cent of the young musicians
had never played Tchaikovsky’s 5th symphony before, and he shared
their excitement at performing this fine work for the first time.

The first half of the concert was American – north and
south. The tightly controlled early ‘Second Essay’ of Samuel Barber showed off
the orchestra’s sensitive playing in its hushed opening, and then put the
players through their paces in the central complex fugue. They passed with
flying colours.

The orchestra was joined by Izcaray’s compatriot Pacho
Flores for the UK premiere of Efrain Oscher’s Trumpet Concerto – ‘Mestizo’. This involved the soloist playing three
instruments – trumpets in B flat and C, and the flugelhorn. The music brought
together classical symphonic sounds with those of the Venezuelan popular dance,
notably the Salsa. With two South Americans in charge the orchestra could
hardly fail to react to the Latin spirit and the players’ delight, and respect
for the soloist, was clear. In particular the augmented percussion section had
a field day. Though full of energy and spirit the performance was,
nevertheless, well controlled and compelling.

The second half took us to a completely different world –
that of Tsarist Russia and the tortured soul of Tchaikovsky struggling with his
demons. The Fifth Symphony calls for mature playing of the highest order, and
the LSSO responded appropriately. Without wanting to sound patronising, the
young musicians - and some of them only
12 years old – showed no fear: the opening clarinet motif, the bassoon first
main theme and, above all, the second movement horn solo played faultlessly and
sensitively by Alexandra Norbury. The strings played with confidence – even a
hint of portamento when required – and delicacy, especially in the filigree
work of the third movement. The brass came into their own in the fourth
movement bringing the work to a fitting climax.

Once again, we were shown the value of Venezuela’s El
Sistema in producing two such dynamic musicians as Izcaray and Flores; and of
our own London Schools Symphony Orchestra which often fails to get the
recognition or support that it deserves. The UK’s youth orchestras are a
national treasure – they help to bring young people of all backgrounds together
to be stimulated socially and intellectually, they help to create
self-discipline and confidence, and, like the best professional orchestras,
they give much pleasure to many people as they perform some of the world’s
cultural masterpieces for each new generation.